Spanish and Portuguese are Romance languages with many similarities. However, they often differ significantly in pronunciation. To illustrate, we can look at ten words in Spanish and Portuguese. The Spanish words are transcribed with the accent of Mexico City and the Portuguese words with the accent of Sao Paulo:
arte (art) [artɛ] [art͡ʃi]
carro (car) [karo} [kahu]
de (of) [dɛ] [d͡ʒi]
mundo (world) [mundo] [mũdu]
nada (nothing) [naða] [nadɐ]
parque (park) [parkɛ] [parki]
rosa (rose) [rosa} [ho:zɐ]
sal (salt) [sal] [sau]
vaca (cow) [baka] [vakɐ]
verde (green) [bɛrðɛ] [vɛrd͡ʒi]
The words share the same spelling but are pronounced differently. In arte (art), the final vowel is different. This is also the case with carro (car) and mundo (world).
The word de (of) begins with a plosive in Spanish but with an affricate in Portuguese. Differences can be observed with the word verde (green). It begins with a plosive in Spanish but with a fricative in Portuguese. In Spanish the second syllable begins with a fricative but with a plosive in Portuguese.
The word rosa (rose) begins with an alveolar trill. In the Portuguese of Sao Paulo, however, it begins with a glottal fricative. The first vowel is longer in Portuguese than in Spanish and the final vowel is higher in Portuguese than in Spanish.
Portuguese has nasal vowels. This is illustrated in the word mundo (world). It has a nasal vowel in Portuguese, but it does not in Spanish.
Though Spanish and Portuguese are related languages with many similar words, they have very different pronunciation. Portuguese has nasal vowels, but Spanish does not. Spanish has a voiced interdental fricative, but Brazilian Portuguese does not. The list illustrates many of the differences in pronunciation between Spanish and Portuguese.
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